The Way It Was

Can't you just imagine the Draper household --  on one of those rare nights Don stays in with the family?

While Don plays Battleship with Bobby, there happily doing the dishes in the background are Betty and Sally.

 

Life was so much simpler then, wasn't it?

Comments

[Jim M]

My many brothers and sisters made up a game that was mostly just the game of tag by another name. We called it, “Gotcha Last.”
Another difference was that whereas the game of tag is supposed to be about getting someone else first, and that person then becoming “IT,” in our version all that mattered was who-got-who last. And you certainly could not redeem yourself just by making anyone else “IT” because the rules were that you had to GET the very same person who GOT you last, not just any old sibling.  So, of course, the last thing the person who was gotten last was supposed to believe about themselves was that getting tagged (platonically, let me assure you) made them “IT” in any sort of capital "I-T" way. You were less than nothing if you had been gotten last in our family home.  That is, until you redeemed yourself as the last begotten of all (very small “i-t”) its. I think this song captures the spirit of the game very well. Thanks, Aretha! And thanks Broadsides for a fun post at the beginning and end of the most recent posts added.
http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/song/Who_s_Zoomin_Who/13063550

[...pat.]

I was always jealous of the fact that my younger brother was shown how to use power tools, and I was not. That, when something had to be done in the attic, it was my younger brother who would accompany my father to the attic to fix things, not me, the eldest child.
But they never played battleship or any games together.
It was all about division of labour on a sex-based decision tree.

[Catboreal]

Thanks Dad for teaching me how to change a tire and gap spark plugs. Oh and for showing me how to use a soldering iron, hammer and drill. And for not getting upset when I suggested using your band-saw for cutting my wedding fruit cake into even pieces.

Oh and for letting me kick your butt at Battleship.

Your loving daughter.

[mozo]

My family, 2 girls and 2 boys, all shared kitchen duties - divided between setting the table, doing the dishes, etc. There was no division by sex or even seniority. To make the dishwashing more interesting we would see who could finish faster, the one washing or drying. The one drying had to put away all the dishes but had the ability to return anything not properly washed. The washer had to clean the sink as well. Then my parents ruined it all and bought a dishwasher.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

Pat Pet,

"I was always jealous of the fact that my younger brother was shown how to use power tools"

and I was always jealous of the fact that on some of the rare days my Dad would take me up a mountain he would bring one of my sisters, who would get tired on the first top and we d have to cut the day short."